Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (44 page)

He watched the final few seconds tick down.  Then he let the engines run for another thirty seconds.  Just in case.  Still nothing happened.  There was no temptation to continue any longer.  With a deep sigh Jess sent the command to shut down the jump engines.

Nothing happened.  The engines kept running.  They kept pouring energy into jump space.  Jess sent the order to shut them down again.  And again.  Still no response.

Jess queried the
Wanderer
, wondering if the ship was somehow blocking his orders.  It wasn’t.  It was as surprised as Jess, and as worried.

Jess started running diagnostics.  The commands were getting through, the jump engines just weren’t reacting to them.  Or couldn’t.

Jess fought down the rising panic.  Without jump engines the
Wanderer
would be at the mercy of the fleet when it arrived.  Even if the fleet’s weapons couldn’t get through, their boarding shuttles could.  The mining drones could only hold off a few troopers at a time.  A large force would wipe them out in seconds.

Panic was still threatening to overwhelm him.  He used his implants to release chemicals that would relax his body without inducing sleepiness.  He studied the problem more calmly and came up with a plan.  The positioning of the
Wanderer
had been critical to whatever was happening.  All he had to do was move the ship a few hundred metres and the effect should break down.

Jess started the
Wanderer
moving.  Nothing happened.  The thrusters were pushing but the
Wanderer
wasn’t moving.  Something was holding the ship locked in place.  The jump engines.  Something about the effect they generated was holding the
Wanderer
fast.  The normal engines couldn’t begin to exert enough force to overcome the effect, and they’d rip the ship apart if they did.

Jess cursed.  He’d been right after all.  It had been a trap.  And he’d flown the
Wanderer
straight into it.

Chapter Fifty-One

Clay flew his fighter on automatic.  His thoughts were turned towards what he needed to do.  He’d already hacked several systems in the fighter, including overriding the engine control routines with his own custom version.  Now all he had to do was enter the correct code and twenty seconds later his fighter would disappear in an explosion.

The rest of his changes were designed to ensure he wasn’t still in the fighter at that point, while convincing everyone else that he was.  The ejection mechanism, on-board cameras, life support and other systems that could give away his absence had all been tweaked.

Everything was set.  All he had to do was get close to Greenseed station at the right time, start the detonation countdown and ensure he was well clear before the explosion.  Then he had to reach the station, an easy task as the ejected seat would have basic manoeuvring thrusters.  Entering the station would be easy, he could override civilian emergency locks in his sleep.

He would have to merge himself into the population.  A station the size of Greenseed would be sure to have a few people living on the margins, and with the influx of people from the Imperial ships it would be easy for Clay to pass unnoticed.  To the imperials he’d be just another station civvie.  To the residents of Greenseed he’d be just another of the Imperial interlopers.

He couldn’t stay undetected forever but he didn’t need to.  He would ship out on one of the supply ships.  Then… well, he didn’t know.  He couldn’t plan that far ahead.  For the moment all that mattered was getting away from the Imperial fleet, and the Cobra, as quickly as possible.

An updated patrol pattern came in.  It would take him in close to Greenseed before sweeping far out through the station’s impressive defences.  Each loop would take seventeen minutes.  That suited him fine.  He would swing by Greenseed frequently enough that he could choose the perfect time.  Once the influx of imperials had things in the station sufficiently confused Clay would make his move.

Until then he just had to wait.  Wait and pray that he wasn’t reassigned onto a different patrol.  Having an engine explosion probably wouldn’t cause too close an investigation.  Heading far off his expected course, approaching the station and
then
having his engine blow certainly would.

*****

Jess was becoming more and more frantic.  All his efforts to override the jump engines came to nothing.  In desperation he forced the
Wanderer
to cut all power to the engines.  The flow dropped to zero.  The engines kept running. 

“
That’s impossible,” Jess muttered.

He tried to make sense of the readouts he was seeing.  Power had been cut to the engines, that was certain, but somehow they kept running.  Jess pounded the arm of his chair.  This couldn’t be happening.  Why hadn’t he trusted his instincts? 

What else could he do?  Every idea he had was flawed in some way.  Except one.  Physically break away from the jump drives.  Reform the ship so the jump drives were not connected, then simply slip away.  He was pretty certain it would work.

He’d never know though.  Breaking the main ship away from the jump drives would take several hours at least.  The chasing fleet would arrive long before then.  Even if Jess could find a way to dump the drives more quickly the
Wanderer
would still be left helpless, stuck in normal space.  Creating even the most basic of new jump engines would take half a day.  Half a day he didn’t have.

So he kept looking for alternatives, for a way to recover control of the jump engines or a way to break the effect.  Knowing that every minute brought the Imperial fleet closer.

*****

Sal still lay in her cell, faking sleep.  The quiet state of her body was in sharp comparison to the activity in her mind.  Through the newly grown implants she had control of all the ship’s major systems.  The Imperial warship was now hers, not anyone else's, though she was careful not to let anyone realise.

It wasn’t enough.  She could keep herself safe from those in the ship.  She could control the ship itself, including its engines, weapons and shields.  But as soon as she exerted control over the ship the rest of the fleet would be alerted, and they would soon see to it that the ship, and Sal, were destroyed.

Could she spread the Gift to people on nearby ships using her implants and the ship’s systems?  That was something that hadn’t been possible for any of the gifted before.  With her implants she thought it was possible.  The problem would be choosing the target.  She needed a ship that could see her safely away from the fleet.  The battlecruiser would be an ideal target, but would she ever get close enough to it?

She delved into the information on the fleet, looking for any other ships that might offer a chance.  Suddenly she stopped.  Of course!  How had she forgotten those?  Those would be perfect.  Now she just had to hope one came close enough to her ship once they returned to normal space.

*****

Admiral Vorn sat in his command chair, watching the bridge bustling around him.  There was no good reason for him to be in command right then, but something prevented him leaving.  Excitement had wormed its way into his body.

The next time they caught the
Wanderer
would also be the last.  No more chasing.  The Omega Beam was initialised and ready to be fired.  It might take hours, it might take days, but the moment would come and the
Wanderer
would flee no more.

Vorn frowned at his screen.  The
Wanderer
had changed direction.  The change was only just visible but it had definitely started to move to the right.  Vorn watched for a few minutes, ensuring the change of course wasn’t just a ruse, then ordered the
Starslayer
out of jump space.

They hit real space, closely followed by the rest of the fleet.  Vorn calculated the course needed to make their path meet the
Wanderer
’s and transmitted it.  Then all he could do was wait impatiently for the jump engines to be ready to fire again.

*****

As the
Shogan
dropped out of jump space Sal studied the nearby ships.  She quickly identified a suitable target.  The
Dark Shadow
.  Not only was it just what she wanted, the captains of the
Shogan
and the
Dark Shadow
often called each other.  The
Dark Shadow
’s captain wouldn’t see anything unusual in receiving a call.

Sal felt her heart beat faster as she placed the call.  If this didn’t work then she would be exposed as one of the gifted, and by far her best chance of escaping would be gone.  But the chance to escape on such a powerful ship was more than worth the risk.

*****

The captain of the dark shadow wasn’t really asleep.  He dozed, but no more.  He never did sleep well aboard the
Dark Shadow
.  He felt the same discomfort when he was awake.  It wasn’t unusual he knew.  Most of the crew shared the feeling, as did the crews of the Empire’s other banshees.

Not that he wanted to leave.  The banshee was a marvel.  Most obviously for its ability to cloak, to effectively become invisible.  The ship had far more going for it though.  Its weapons were far stronger than those on the much larger Imperial corvettes.  It could soak up a lot of damage too.  Far more than any other ship of its size.  It was everything he could dream of commanding.

But banshees were a nightmare too.  It was never officially spoken of, but the banshees were clearly not designed for humans.  All the important parts were.  The screens, controls and seats on the bridge.  The bed, desk and small bathroom area in his quarters.  All of it was boringly familiar.  Reassuring.  A little at least.

There were constant reminders that humans were interlopers though.  The corridors had been designed with a shorter, wider species in mind.  The captain and his taller crew members had learnt to duck when moving between rooms.

The dark, almost oily looking, surfaces of the original ship showed through everywhere.  In gaps between screens.  In the material visible under the desks.  His cabin was the one exception.  A privilege of rank.  No sign of the ship’s real structure could be seen in his cabin.

It was an unspoken acknowledgement of the ship’s effect on people, and was supposed to give the captain somewhere to fully relax.  It didn’t work.  Not for him at least.  He could still feel the ship’s structure smothered by the human fittings.  Many of his bad dreams started with the ship shaking off those fittings, its black surfaces bursting forth to trap the human interlopers.  From there the dreams invariably turned nasty.

His eyes flew open as a warbling alarm accompanied the crash of a hard exit from jump space.  The alarm changed to a far gentler tone a few moments later.  He was already out of bed and halfway to the door, but he stopped on hearing the changed tone.  There was no immediate threat.  Moving to his console he opened a channel.

“
Bridge here, Captain.”

“
What’s our status?” he snapped out.

“
Course change Captain.  We have the new destination.  The fleet is cycling jump engines ready to go.”

“
No threats in the area?”

“
No sir.”

“
All right.  I’m going to get some more sleep.  Notify me immediately if anything changes.”

“
Of course Captain.”

He turned towards his bed.  A shudder shot down his spine at the thought of what might wait in his dreams.  He turned back to his desk, dropping heavily into the seat in front of the terminal.  Sleep could wait.  If necessary he’d get something from the doctor to stay alert.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

He stared at the screen, too tired to work but not tired enough to risk sleeping.  He was spared the decision when he received an incoming call.  He smiled when he saw it was from the
Shogan
’s captain.  The two of them often spoke.  No doubt this call would be to complain about playing nursemaid to the new prisoner.

He accepted the call, enabling video.  The screen flashed to life.  To his surprise it wasn’t the
Shogan
’s captain he saw.  It was a woman.  A woman with amazing eyes.  Eyes that seemed to draw him in.

He could have resisted if he’d tried.  The transmission medium had robbed the effect of its usual power.  He didn’t.  It didn’t occur to him.  It took him long seconds to make the connection between the woman on screen and the prisoner aboard the
Shogan
.  By then it was too late.  He tried to struggle, tried to break free.  No matter what he did he found his gaze locked to the woman’s eyes.

Then something changed.  The flow seemed to reverse and something horrific was forced into his mind, into his soul.  He would have screamed, if only he could.  This was so much worse than the nightmares he’d grown used to.  And this time there would be no waking up.

*****

Sal fought back a gasp as her connection to the
Dark Shadow
’s captain was abruptly severed.  The fleet had returned to jump space.  Communication between ships was impossible once again.

No matter.  There had been enough time.  The captain had received the Gift.  Her plan was well underway.  Now she needed to lay the groundwork for the next stage — escaping from the
Shogan
.